<p>thank you, sbjdorlo!</p>
<p>@shoboemom - hope you feel better with the tree outside!!! I decided I was a scrooge and went artificial years ago… I do miss that pine smell though!</p>
<p>Reading the thread today, I am struck that each of us is trying our hardest to help our kids navigate the ins and the outs of this process. I must say that at times I feel befuddled and we have simply hoped that we are doing the right thing! My D applied SCEA - we must have read their policy one million six hundred thousand times and still weren’t 100% sure we were following it correctly… ended up sending a plea the the admissions department to help. Glad we did and continued some other apps (with the blessing of the SCEA school) since she was deferred.</p>
<p>My son applied binding ED and to one other school as a “back up.” He got in ED and we have not seen financials yet…he has until Feb to respond. However, he just got a scholarship program app from back up school that is due early Jan (a week or two before we will see financials)… It feels odd for him to submit the scholarship app (almost like we are violating some ED mantra - though no evidence of that in reading the policy) - but what if we really can’t afford the ED? If he doesn’t send it in, we will miss the opportunity to have a decent deal at back up U. Arrgh.</p>
<p>I think there are so many variations on the rules that it does become personal judgement in some cases. The best news… the new year is upon us and we will be through this hoop very soon!!! :-></p>
<p>@rhandco, perhaps heretohelpyou misread and thought your EA school was a restricted EA school?? Otherwise no way to make sense of her statements.</p>
<p>I am sorry that the financials are not what you hoped for at the ED school. I hope you manage to work it out somehow. It sounds like you are doing that. </p>
<p>Nobody here thinks you did anything wrong, and I agree with others that it can be confusing, especially when a few schools that one would imagine would have restrictive EA, have instead opted for non-restricted. There is a lot to process and understand. Real headache-inducing stuff.</p>
<p>When D’12 considered applying to NU binding ED, it was brought up in the info session that; you shall apply to 1 and only one ED school and that when applying ED, unless there was unforeseen circumstances (lost job, or death 
) the financial award would be accommodating based on submitted financial information and NOT subjective. Meaning - you couldn’t just say “this is more than I thought, I’m out” Now there is no prison for backing out, but they were clear…don’t apply if you’re not ready to pay what THEY think you can pay.</p>
<p>It was way more commitment than D’12 (or us) wanted to make.</p>
<p>I read RPI’s materials as being completely silent on whether having a live EA pending is permissible during their ED program and neither know nor care what their policy is. What I do know is that restricting a student from having any other early applications going – even at his or her state flagship – would differ from any other ED program with which I am familiar, and I have no idea why RPI would effectively discourage kids from applying to their ED program by making such a rule. It seems irrational. </p>
<p><a href=“Early Decision | Columbia Undergraduate Admissions”>https://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/apply/first-year/early-decision</a></p>
<p>I have always understood ED policy as allowing applications to other EA schools based on what I have read up in the past on Columbia’s site (enclosed) and Penn’s site.</p>
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<p>Interestingly enough, Georgetown discourages people from applying to them early if they apply to an ED school.</p>
<p>SCEA schools OTOH are quite clear that they don’t want people applying to anyschools other than public State. I was at a presentation a couple of years ago where the adcom said they take it very seriously and when one kid got into both Columbia and Stanford and they found out about it, both schools cancelled the admission.</p>
<p>We did have a local kid who got into Columbia and MIT and gave up MIT. Many kids are encouraged to apply to open EA schools to optimize their ED opportunity (you are locked in if you get in but if you don’t you are able to play the EA pool at the same time while SCEA school won’t let you).</p>
<p>The way I read NACAC guideline is that the only restriction ED school should have is applying ED anywhere else. Kids are prevented by SCEA schools from applying anywhere which is not an ED rule but and SCEA rule. So that leaves in open EA schools and foreign schools.</p>
<p>My understanding is that most of the major Catholic universities don’t offer ED and don’t take applicants who are ED elsewhere because they believe that binding kids that early in the senior year is unfair. </p>
<p>I’ve said it before, but if you’re full pay, SCEA is the worst system of all because it limits choice to essentially the same extent as ED without the trade off benefit of a significantly higher admissions rate than in the RD round. </p>
<p>We avoided ED because we need to compare packages, and avoided SCEA because D did want to apply to a few EA schools. If we’d done anything it would have been SCEA - no commitment required.</p>
<p>Rather complicated 
</p>
<p>It all worked out for us. </p>
<p>The rules some schools appear to have about ED remind me of club sports, where if one kid commits to two teams, one or both teams is disqualified. That one kid affected 17 or 33 other kids extremely negatively. Same thing in HS sports, an overage kid or transfer can nullify a season’s games. Can disqualify a team from competing in next year’s tournaments. All one person affecting many.</p>
<p>I can see how private schools might want to keep things very tight, but I don’t think my son’s public school sends enough kids to top schools that they would do anything other than punish the applicant.</p>
<p>The important thing in my son’s mind is that he doesn’t have to do any more essays or applications, and I hope he holds onto that good feeling when he first starts to pay back his student loans…</p>
<p>It’s a bit paradoxical, then, that SCEA is more restrictive at the application stage than ED, since it forbids any other application (except for a public) while ED allows other applications. But at the notification stage ED is more constraining. </p>
<p>All I can say is that my last kid did ED, am over the moon that we won’t ever have to go through a college admissions process again–except maybe for grad school, a whole other thing. </p>
<p>Well ED only allows other apps because you can’t take them if the ED school accepts you.</p>
<p>My D also applied to one school ED and another school EA (not single-choice). I don’t see how this is a problem. You’re committing to attend the ED school if accepted, so why would they care if you apply to any schools EA or only RD? And the EA school is simply allowing you to apply and hear back early – you don’t have to commit or let them know whether you’ll be attending until you hear back from your RD schools in April.</p>
<p>@HereToHelpYou, can you please explain your posts? Many people here seem to be confused by what you’re saying.</p>
<p>I apologize for having to ask, but what is SCEA?</p>
<p>Single Choice Early Action. It’s like a hybrid between ED and EA – not binding, but you’re committing not to apply anywhere else early. (Do I have that right?) I think only a few schools have this. </p>
<p>They call it SCEA and some have changed the name to REA.</p>
<p>Essentially, HYPS are the main schools in this process. I am not even sure if any other school has this specific process.</p>
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</p>
<p>I guess Georgetown calls their version REA where they are asking that no one apply to an ED program.</p>
<p>I am surprised to see Wellesley. I thought they had ED.</p>
<p>Applied ED already through common application and got deferred. Still struggle in the water, lol!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Is it possible to send in the deferred school an amended common app essay (actually same as the origin one with grammar improvement)</p></li>
<li><p>Will apply several RD schools through common app, is it possible to send in a brand new common app essay for all RD schools (to replace the one sent to ED school in common app)?</p></li>
<li><p>Is it possible to send in different common app essays to each different RD schools?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I saw in previous posts that each applicant has three possible CA essay submittals. That is, after the first version is submitted, they can revise and submit a new one (completely new I guess?) to a different college and then, after that one is submitted, they can revise one more time and submit a third to another college. Or keep the same one in between, and then change.</p>
<p>But I think after that it is done, no more new CA essays. I don’t know about sending in a new essay, it might be worth a call to the college.</p>
<p>And recycle98 and others, consider getting in a rolling admissions app if your child can find one. Our plan was to do rolling admissions for one or two schools during the lull between ED/EA and RD if he was rejected or deferred, as decisions are often quicker and not tied to the day for RD decisions. I’m not sure if CC has a list somewhere of rolling admissions schools, I know of two engineering schools with rolling admissions.</p>
<p>Is there a reason for using three different common app essays? One reason I’m asking is essay fatigue becomes a very real issue (if it isn’t already). It’s not unusual for colleges to ask for supplemental essays or for honors programs require additional essays. Then, there are the scholarship essays. That’s a lot of essay-writing. I can’t imagine going back and crafting a whole new common app essay (answering a different prompt) for different schools. Editing and re-submitting the current essay should be fine.</p>
<p>It would be interesting to check out a list of rolling admission schools. It is VERY nice to have an acceptance in-hand.</p>
<p>My D considered doing a different common app essay…for 2 reasons. She felt like the tone she started with for the first school, might not be the best essay tone for one of the other schools. I think she might want to consider at least reviewing it before she sends it out to her last school…so far, she has pretty much written, edited and sent her essays in a fairly short time frame. I think they could improve if she would give them more time and review them again. The problem with that, is that if she goes back and edits her common app now, and finds issues to fix, then she’ll feel bad about having sent the first version out! :-?
She has started and completely restarted her essays a few times, but once she settles on her idea, she considers it to be done pretty quickly. She even sent her last one in a day before the deadline (deadline was Dec 15, she sent it Dec 14 in case they meant is already had to be there before Dec 15), and she was still editing, right up until she clicked submit! I wish I could get her to get them done a little early and take more time with them!</p>